Last week, emerging Kenyan composer and sound artist Nyokabi Kariuki released her single Galu on 14th July under SA recordings. Galu is the fourth track from SA recording’s Singles Series, which aims to champion new music from upcoming composers via digital release featuring composers such as Homay Schmitz, Shiva Feshareki and Hamu. 

In our last conversation with Nyokabi she spoke of situating African sounds within the world’s collective consciousness. “The work that I create is almost always focused on elevating stories and sounds from home”, Nyokabi said. True to her vision, Galu whips up a breath of fresh, ocean air away from the Western classical idiom. "Galu came about as I reflected on home while being away from home. During the pandemic, imagining peaceful places from my growing up in Kenya gave me, temporarily, appreciated moments of rest & stillness”.

In this track, water takes on the shape of a colonnade of corals and crab pools. It features sounds made with vocals, kalimba, drumset (Chris O'Leary), and field recordings that Nyokabi took in December 2019. What’s most charming about Nyokabi, is her ability to capture the ocean’s inherent contradictions of danger, beauty and mystery. As she sings “I go down at six am to swim”, Nyokabi mimics a mermaid, entrancing us in her siren with each utterance. Here, the turbid ebbs and flows of humanity and compassion are resonant, reminding us of what we love most about the Kenyan coast to begin with. At the song’s conclusion, the eternal note of catharsis is struck.

“Galu is part of an EP project called ‘peace places: Kenyan memories’, where each track focuses on several places at home that gave me peace and similarly feature field recordings from each respective place” Nyokabi shares.  The full EP will be released on SA recording this autumn. In the meantime, you can join Nyokabi’s wavelength, by streaming Galu here:

Bandcamp: https://nyokabikariuki.bandcamp.com/

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